This invention relates to gas turbine engines, and more particularly, to a pulse detonation system for a gas turbine engine.
At least some known gas turbine engines include a forward fan, a core engine, and a power turbine. The core engine includes at least one compressor that provides pressurized air to a combustor wherein the air is mixed with fuel and ignited for generating hot combustion gases. The combustion gases are channeled downstream to one or more turbines that extract energy therefrom to power the compressor and to provide useful work, such as powering an aircraft. The thrust available from at least some known gas turbine engines may limit the operational speed of the associated aircraft to an upper Mach number of approximately two.
A pulse detonation engine may produce additional thrust in comparison to other known gas turbine engines using a series of repetitive detonations of a fuel/air mixture within a detonation chamber. Each detonation generates a wave that propagates at supersonic speeds. Each wave compresses fluid within the detonation chamber, thus increasing the pressure, density, and temperature of the fluid. As the wave is channeled towards the open rearward end of the engine, thrust is created. The pulse detonation cycle is then repeated. Such an engine may be able to enable the associated aircraft to attain Mach numbers greater than a gas turbine engine, for example, Mach 4 or greater. However, equipping an aircraft with multiple combinations of different type of engines may be impracticable, and/or cost prohibitive.